Every so often, after the clocks change and until there is light in the sky again, the Wednesday evening training run is changed for a night run – sometimes themed. Also starting at 7pm the runs are in different locations around Edinburgh, with a convivial meal afterwards in a convenient hostelry.Older night runs archive (pre 2014)

Next night run – Wed 21st Feb

Train in Vain – an experimental run involving navigating (some) of the disused Edinburgh railway stations. 9.61 miles. It’s all cycleable so if you don’t fancy running, come by bike! Click the map pins for links to photos and info.

Previous night runs –

I’d have liked to spend a little longer on the top of Mount Maw, the first hill of the Baddinsgill Round, taking in the crystal clear views of the stars, moon, distant red lit towers, sky glow from Edinburgh, far off sparkling lights on this remote feeling spot, but everyone shot off back down the squelchy hill to get back in time for a cosy feast at the Gordon Arms Hotel.Digby

Sparkling night! We might have been OK at West Linton for the scheduled night run but this was a fine substitute. The crystal clear air showed off the lights of Edinburgh and Penicuik to the best, with wreaths of cloud here and there, the forerunners of the promised snow.

Willie’s Report
So I had my pie chips and onion rings at 6pm, (The Steading food was not available for after the run) so I was well fuelled as I prepared for the run. Moira turned up to give me a lift so pints after were on too. The Steading porch became the meeting point but with 27 or so we were causing a bit of a traffic jam.
The fast socials headed off for a clockwise climb of Caerketton and us slowcials ran up towards the ski slope. Passing below the slope I put on my Kahtoola micro spikes for the first time this season. After a regroup above the T-Wood, Nicola and Jonny went their own way and the other ten of us ascended Allermuir meeting the Socials just before the last climb. We had 27 Carnethies on Allermuir as we admired the view.
As the socials headed west the rest headed east following the ridge toward home, then we had our own Caerketton Downhill Race. We took roughly 5 times the record to do the descent, but what a night to be out.
After a pint the Socials appeared, and a second pint was ordered, A perfect night.

Jonny’s report
Tonight me and my mum split from the pack and just had fun by the form of snowballs, snow angles bum sliding and getting stuck in a snowdrift. We went 3 miles in total only .7 miles behind the slow group. Our run was for fun not just for the sake of running. Hope to do another one if it snows again🤞!!

A most enjoyable run on tracks probably new to a lot of people, on a lovely crisp cold evening. Send us your report!

From Margaret...This run is part of my stamping ground, so it was nice to know where I was going on a Carnethy night run for a change. We ran from the disused RBS at Juniper Green down to the Water of Leith and over to Woodhall Farm. If you’re here in daylight, look out for the recently rebuilt dry-stane dykes around the farm. We followed the Edinburgh Circo route (now a clear, broad track instead of a burn) up to Tiphereth where we found another new path up to the old Torphin Hill golf course. From there we continued to Torduff Reservoir, across the dam, up the hill and then over to Clubbiedean Reservoir and on to Kinleith. We ran down the Poets’ Glen (another place worth visiting in daylight) and from there to Blinkbonny. Here there was a little discussion about alternative routes: 5 minutes back to Al Borge (and food!) or a “small” extension to the run. We chose the extension, of course and this is where I lost the route. Basically, we were running forever in a westerly direction, along a farm track which was new to me, and then we rejoined the Water of Leith and ran east to Juniper Green. It was a perfect night for a run. Many thanks for Euan for organising.

The Autumn Equinox Run is well established now (and what a hoot it is!), so I thought it would be nice if its young upstart the Vernal Equinox could get in on the act. So I organised a run. My thoughts when doing this were that by the time it came around on Monday, 20th March, we would be looking at warm sunlight uplands, possibly going topless and sipping sparkling mead (that did happen) under birdsong. However the weather was Baltic (but it stayed dry, to be fair) and the next day saw snow blanket much of the north of Britain, so maybe we angered the Gods somehow. Digby had also pointed out (in his imitable style) that the clocks weren’t going to change until this Sunday, so we’d be better to delay it a week. But I was keen to make it on the day of the Equinox.

I decided on Cairnpapple, as it one of the most important Druidic sites in Scotland, and has an impressive structure on its top to prove it. More of that later. My only experience of the hill was running to its (almost) summit with Neil B when we did the comically-named Bathgate Highland Games Hill Race. I remembered it as basically a road race that had a bit of a climb. However, run leader Lisa assured me we’d be getting all down and dirty through woods and stuff, and so it proved.

I had hoped that someone from the Druid community in Scotland might come out to the hill to meet us, but they seemed very shy, but Jean, a lovely lady from the Pagan Network Scotland got in touch and sent me some words, which I read out on the run:

“Paganism is a bit of an umbrella terminology for a number of beliefs:- Wicca, Druidism, Heathen, Shamanism, Nordic or Northern tradition to name but a few. Most if not all of these belief systems celebrate the “ Wheel of the Year” which encompasses 8 festivals beginning on 31st October with Samhain/Halloween and ending with the Autumnal Equinox around 21st September. The significance of Cairnpapple to most Pagans is that it is a burial mound. As modern day paganism is based on pre-christian beliefs, most Pagans would view Cairnpapple as perhaps a place to commune with the spirits of the pre-christian peoples whose remains are buried there. It was obviously a special place where the ancient people of Scotland may have held celebratory or funerary rituals. Pagans cannot and do not claim to know the exact format of these rituals, they can only guess. However the site has quite clearly been a fairly important one in pre-historic times.

The Vernal Equinox is important because it is the time of equal day and night and as such is seen as a time of balance and harmony. It is also the time of increasing daylight and a time of new life and growth.This is the time of Spring, the joyful time, the seed time, when life bursts forth from the Earth and the chains of Winter are broken. Light and Dark are equal; it is a time of balance, when the elements within us must be brought into a new harmony. The Prince of the Sun stretches out His hand and the Dark Maiden returns from the Land of the Dead, cloaked in fresh green with the sweet scent of desire on Her breath. Where They step, the wild flowers appear: as They dance, despair turns to hope, sorrow to joy, want to abundance. May our hearts open with the Spring.”

And so to the run.

We gathered at the appointed time at Linlithgow Railway Station and we were down from 22 to 13 runners. Various call-offs happened during the day but we still had the Dirty (Baker’s) Dozen at the core.

Lisa led the way up the hill from the Station into the wilds of the Linlithgow suburbs. We came to the edge of Beecraigs Country Park, where things got more interesting. There was lots of (gradual) climbing and it wasn’t long before we stopped to regroup and found ourselves pretty high, with good views over West Lothian.

Given the distance and time involved we were swithering at this point abut actually making it to Cairnpapple, as it’s a fair stretch from the start, but Jeff had stashed some sparkling mead in the gorse bushes near the summit that lunchtime, so that clinched it. In the end we adjusted our route to take in Witchcraig and Cairnpapple and we missed out Cockleroy.

The running was a mix of hard-packed trails through the woods, country roads, but also some minor hill climbs and mud. A good mix and Lisa kept the pace high. I think we all felt that we’d had a good workout by the time we sat down to eat. The Star & Garter were very accommodating and the food and service was good. A great evening and it’s been suggested we re-run the route in the summer again, perhaps taking in Cockleroy this time.Mike Lynch

Some notes on Cairnpapple:

Cairnpapple Hill is a hill with a dominating position in central lowland Scotland with views from coast to coast. It was used and re-used as a major ritual site over about 4000 years, and in its day would have been comparable to better known sites like the Standing Stones of Stenness. The summit lies 312 m above sea level, and is about 2 miles (3 km) north of Bathgate. In the 19th century the site was completely concealed by trees, then in 1947–1948 excavations by Stuart Piggott found a series of ritual monuments from successive prehistoric periods. In 1998, Gordon Barclay re-interpreted the site for Historic Scotland.

Neolithic
Neolithic rituals began about 3500 BC with signs of small hearths, and precious objects left on the hill, presumably as offerings, including fine pottery bowls and stone axe heads imported from Cumbria and Wales. Probably around 3000 BC a Class II henge was constructed with the hilltop being surrounded by a bank outside a ditch about 12 ft (4 m) wide cut over 3 ft (1 m) into the rock, with wide entrances from north and south. Inside this an egg-shaped setting of 24 uprights (thought to have been timber posts, or possibly standing stones) enclosed an inner setting of similar uprights.

Bronze Age
Some time later a Bronze age ritual added a small stone and clay cairn just off centre inside the monument, with a 7 ft (2 m) high standing stone to the east and a setting of smaller stones. Also aligned to this cairn were sockets for three upright stones at the centre of an arc of seven small pits, six of which contained cremated bones and two contained remains of bone skewer pins. Under the cairn traces were found of at least one burial, with wooden objects (perhaps a mask and club) and beaker people style pottery which indicates a date around 2000 BC. This cairn was later covered by a second much larger cairn about 50 ft (15 m) across and several yards (metres) high, with a kerb of massive stone slabs, which incorporated Bronze age burial cists, one of which contained a food vessel pot. Subsequently, more stone was brought in to increase this cairn to about 100 ft (30 m) diameter, enclosing two cremation burials in inverted urns and now covering the original ditch and bank, making the whole site a tomb monument. Lastly, inside the ditch to the east four graves considered Iron age are now thought to be early Christian because of their east-west alignment, and are dated to around 500 to 1000.

Present day
Interior of modern cairn:
The site is open to the public April to September and has a small visitor centre. The 1940s excavations have been partly covered by a concrete dome replicating the second cairn (although the dome is much higher than the cairn) so that visitors can go inside what was once a solid cairn and see the reconstructed graves, and outside this the surrounding post holes and graves are marked by being filled with colour-coded gravel like an archaeological plan, with the red gravel indicating upright pits, and the white gravel denoting the alleged Christian burials. The current display attempts to show all the main phases of the site at the same time.

Derivation of the name
Although there is still some confusion about the origin of the name Cairnpapple Hill, or the alternative Cairniepapple, its meaning can be guessed to a certain extent. It is uncertain whether the name comes from a Brythonic language, related to Welsh, a Goidelic one, such as Scottish Gaelic, or a mixture of the two. The first part, cairn- means cairn, either from Brythonic (e.g. Welsh carn) or Goidelic (e.g. Gaelic càrn or càirn). The second part -ie-, means of the, as in Welsh y or Gaelic a’. The third part is the most problematic, possibly meaning any of tent (Welsh pabell, Gaelic puball), people/congregation (Welsh pob(o)l, Gaelic pobull), or even eye (compare Old Welsh pubell). Thus, Cairniepapple is most likely to mean Cairn of the tent, Cairn of the people, or Cairn of the eye. Another meaning, put forward in the documentary Before Scotland (written and presented by historian Alistair Moffat), is Priest Rock.